Chaos space marine bikers - conversion time!

Sometimes I spend too much on gaming. Sometimes I'm a right cheapskate when buying things.  I've long since given up trying to work out why I swing wildly from one to the other, sometimes even for the same army.

I'm sure you also know that I really enjoy converting. My painting is an ok tabletop standard and I don't have the patience to learn the advanced techniques or get an airbrush. So I often rely on conversions to feel like my army is standing out a little.

So when the cheapskate in me kicked in when thinking about getting some chaos space marine bikers, it was a perfect chance to go for some conversions given how all the troops in that army are converted.

A meander through the various ranges on offer in both 40k and WFB led me to the chaos marauder horseman. Really nice new sculpts and only £15 odd quid for 5 as opposed to £40 for the "official" bikers. Add in the torsos from the dark vengeance set and lots of chopping and sticking and I had my conversions.

So here are the first four:

And here are the next four:

I got to eight by using 3 WFB Empire knights horses that I had lying around, from another project of years ago that never got off the ground.

Lots of religious craziness from scrolls, etc.

Two plasma guns and a lightning claw for sarge.

My chaos force is coming along nicely now and hopefully I'll keep the momentum up in the new year to get an army finished......... About 8 years after it was started!

Dreadball Veer-Myn

Here they are, my third dread ball team!

All spruced up ready for the alternate jungle zone boards that we bought a couple of months ago.

Minor conversions on the duplicates to make them all (slightly) different. Numbers added for star player points appropriation and lines added to show the front and backs of the bases.

Right - who's up for getting a duffing in the dread ball arena then?!?!?

Saga Welsh -finally finished!

As mentioned previously I've joined a "painting challenge" on another blog and it's inspired me to get try to get lots of the things sitting around on the shelves of holding done.

First up were the remain of my saga figures. 12 levy

The dog is a random addition when I thought I was a miniature down as saga requires units in multiples of 4.

And 8 warriors.

Really good to get these done, years after buying them, and perhaps we'll be able to get a game in soon. Either that or up to the loft they shall go until something else crops up for them.

Now off to Father Xmas for wrapping

Finally after consuming pretty much all of my lunchtime hobby time at work for the last four months I have now finished the dollhouse for my daughter. This has been a labour of love but I am so pleased that it is finished not only because it is a Christmas present but because it has taken so long.

Not wargaming but definitely hobby stuff!

Lion Khymarae conversions finally done for the Dark Eldar!

I really, really like these lion sculpts from the GW elf lion chariot. Originally these were "painted" as part of my great idea of doing everything in white with light army painter..... And frankly it all looked a bit rushed and rubbish.

So, I've finally re-based them and painted them in line with the rest of my DE army and went for red and black..... Because they're evil!

Eight nasty beasties who are currently marauding over an imperial guard encampment if the bases are anything to go by

They're now on the proper bases for Khymerae and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table actually looking ok.

Razor wing painting complete

Here she is, the painted Razorwing to add a little more flight to my Dark Eldar force. Same paint job as the rest of the crew, with the eye based decals as I liked the look of them on the flyer.

I used the Eddie Artillery patented "black plus gloss varnish" on the canopy to make it loo space age.... And save me having to paint a pilot :)

Bizarrely I only had this kit for a month or so before building it, which is extremely quick for me! Smashing little kit, fun and easy to put together.

In other news, I've joined a painting challenge on the internet! Looks like cracking fun and I'm hoping it encourages me to get a load of stuff done. You can follow the progress of the large number of participants here:

http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.ca

It's a WHOPPPPPPER!!!!

I remember daydreaming about titans and all the Horus Heresy battles from the fluff in White Dwarf all those years ago and these days......those dreams are coming true.

The Castigator is a mean looking hombre and quite nice model to put together.

Just got to paint the fecker now!

My Start to the Imperial Fists.

 So the challenge for me has been time.  Running with two jobs has left me little time for my hobby.  So when a challenge was thrown down to get one unit done per month I was tempted to cheat and do a Tyranid unit such as the Venomthrope or Swarmlord. But no I want to get the 30K project racing along.

So here are some of the Space Marine Veterans I will be using in the Imperial Fist legion.





The first challenge was to get the yellow right, I didn't want a "bright" yellow as all the artwork seems to be gothic and "worn" so I opted for Vallejo Sepia wash over the yellow.

I also went with a lot of transfers, perhaps I should have thought more about this, as it took me approximately 2 hours just to get these on properly. I use Micro Sol and Set and in the past, not a problem.  This time the transfers would not conform to the figures. Sheesh!!! Eventually it has come good.

The next items will be my Terminators, these are all Forge World models and will look great once finished. In fact there are 3 squads of 5 of these. so a fair bit of work. The next units should be some bog standard marines. I have 30 of these and 3 Rhino's.  All this for our big game in December!!

I hope you like them.

Et tu, Helbrute?

The Burning Chalice chapter of the Word Bearers legion were some of the earliest and most keenest converts to the use of summoned daemons to possess members of the legion during the Horus Heresy.

This practice has never been far from the chapters tactics through the many intervening years to the 41st millennium, even though the chapters size and power has waxed and waned over this time, making the process easier or harder.

Over the years, the treatment of such possessed individuals has approached worship and veneration, such that when a fatally wounded possessed trooper is found at the end of a battle, they are quickly taken to the dark apostles and twisted tech priests for internment in a dreadnaught sarcophagus.

This practice is anathema to the daemon, who finds themselves trapped in the flesh of the trooper and further trapped in the metal of the machine and so, even by the standards of these crazed creatures, the helbrutes of the Burning Chalice chapter are almost completely uncontrollable on the battlefield. The Burning Chalice therefore have resorted to utilising blasphemous rituals to drop them into the midst of the enemy once battle is joined, instead of trying to bring them with the bulk of their forces.  The carnage they can cause in is manner is legend.  Three such creatures are those known as Prophaniti, The Endless and Dark Epiphani.

Multi melta for this one and some blasphemous texts attached to his armour. Most likely excerpts from the book of Lorgar. I replaced the horns around his head with tentacles.

A plasma cannon from the forgefiend (thanks silverback!), a new head and a re-positioned arm on this one as I didn't want them to all have the same pose. An extended back from a set of bits I got from eBay and more blasphemous texts, as well as the legion and chapter insignia.

The most involved conversion - the thumb came off and was re-positioned to make it a right arm with the power fist and a plasma cannon on the other. A new head, gorget and another extended back. Lots more blasphemous texts from the sisters of battle transfer sheet (which was invaluable).

I'm pleased with how they've turned out and a dark, wasted land with dead grass to finish them all off. Perhaps the existence of these tainted creatures kills the land.... Perhaps it is the tainted artefacts they endlessly hunt..... Or perhaps it is the weapons they employ. Whatever it is, wherever they tread, the very land suffers.

I'm pleased with how they all look different despite being from the same base figure and am looking forward to them wreaking havoc as I intend to use them as the helbrute dataslate that deploys as deep strike and has to roll on the "crazed" table every turn as opposed to only when damaged, hence the fluff piece above.

I haven't been totally idle.......

....just bad at blogging stuff!

I've been working on a small Mechanicum force to go with my Iron Hands and completely neglected to take any WIP shots but hell....they're all put together and ready for paint which is the important thing.

Lovely models particularly the Thanator who has come to be known as Stompy by my colleagues at work. He's great!

 TTFN

Da Deff Kopta Sqwadrun..... And da uvver wun

My quest for a fully painted ork army continues apace!

What with having lots of boyz done, I decided it was time for some support. So out from the almost forgotten work box come some Deff Koptas. Quick and easy to paint up and I stripped down the rotors to only two blades so they are easier to store flat!

Goff squadron first, with some decals added to make 'em look a bit flash :) as they are slightly organised, they have the same marking on the front bonnet, with random glyphs added to the sides. I'm pleased with how the decals dulled down with some attention. Lots of colours for missiles on the basis they can't decide which shoot best......

Next up are the slightly crazier evil suns pilots. Same basic work, same squadron load out as the first one (i.e. The basics)

My one game so far with them confirmed my thoughts, great on the first turn and then die horribly to any sort of decent return fire! Still, they do draw fire away from the mobs, which has to be good news.

Just a couple of HQs to finish up now to get my army all painted up......

Infinity nomads - gearing up for the new rules

The best thing about playing lots of different games (or at least, having bought lots of miniatures for different games!) is the different painting challenges they present.

So, after painting lots of orks relatively simply, I interspersed them with more figures for infinity, which are very detailed and require more time and effort.

These are uberfallkommandos, which are people who I believe have taken strange drugs that give them mutations. In the old rules, this led to random abilities each game for each one. No idea what it'll mean in the new rules, but I bought them as I liked the look of them, so we shall see!

Same treatment as my previous nomads to match them. You may be able to see a spare hole on the lady on the far left.... This is due to her being one of those miniatures who just won't stick together and even fell off her foot peg and had to be re-stuck in a new hole as you can see they only have one very small point of contact with the base. So I had to do a very fiddly drilling job up her leg and she was only seconds away from being chucked in the bin in frustration on a number of occasions! Still, I'm glad I persisted :)

Side shot to show the poses better

And some billowing cloaks.

I really am rather looking forward to the new infinity rules and have cleared the queue nicely in time for the new nomad minis from the starter set, which look lovely.

Orks! (And the foldio)

So, having a new army can sometimes mean part or not painted figures on the tabletop when you're too excited about using the new army to have time to get all the lovely figures painted.

So, when I used my orks the other day I had a few under coated figures and some not based, etc..... And I was rather embarrassed.

The orks don't really qualify as "new" anymore, you see. I've had them for years. I've just never managed to get them painted. Which is rubbish and hence my embarrassment. And you know that feeling when you see something and then can't stop seeing it everywhere? So when I looked at a couple of battle reports on the internet, some figures were bare plastic and metal and it looked properly rubbish. So I was reminded of my responsibility as a GoG to get stuff painted before I put it on the table.

So, without any further navel gazing or self flagellation, please find pics of the based snake bites.

These boys complete a unit to give me 30 of them and give me my fourth unit of 30. Horde-tastic :) as I converted a bunch from warhammer figs, they look a little more primitive and the eBay lot I won came with a drummer, who I just had to keep and he's in the second row, drumming out the advance-at-the-quick. Or whatever armies use these days... Silverback?

Next up was finishing the lootas, who were a mish-mash of undercoat and base coat. Bad moons for these boys, with bright yellow highlighting on the yellow metal areas to keep the shiny lookin'.

And from the side

Ideally I'd get all these ladz highlighted at some point, but with about 150 models in the final army I'm not sure I'd ever get the time, so I shall rely on the horde look to allow me to get away with it..... Not many to go now as I inch my way towards the holy grail of 1,500 points.

And a final word on my Foldio. I saw this advertised on the internet a while ago and it came out of a successful kickstarter. It is a little light box that folds down and goes up in seconds and allows me to finally take half decent pictures not on the workbench.  I got the one with 2 LEDs (as I figured not using one was better that finding out I wanted another) and the small amout extra to buy that model was well worth it. Here is a little pic of the foldio in action.

You can really see the difference in light compared to the rest of the garage.

Infinity nomads - now with more Gecko than ever before

Here they are, the big (medium) lads.

These two are a sort of mini TAG for the Nomad faction. They aren't as big or tough as other TAGs, but are bigger and tougher than heavy infantry. You know how sometimes you see figures and just have to have them? That was how these were. Lovely sculpts, went together really nicely.... Although it was weird holding and painting big heavy lumps of metal given other games companies seem to have moved to plastic and resin!

 They only got built as they had been sitting in pieces on my panting table for ages and I picked them up as I was trying to avoid some tricky painting bits. Half hour later all built and on with the painting! I really like the little arms of the operator in the same pose as the TAG to show they're controlling it. The one on the right is hidden by the Geckos arms, so you'll have to trust me on that.

Five (!) coats of blood letter red glaze for these boys, although I really like the effect that depth of colour seems to give. Tarted up some of the other bits and pieces and fortunately these are staying on 40mm bases given Corvus Belli's recent ruling on base sizes, so I could match them with the other nomads' bases that I have.

Anyway, interested in a size comparison?

What's that you say? You hadn't seen that other model before? You're right :) here are the next three nomad models to have been finished

So, there is a "zero" infiltrator, the hacker in the middle and a somewhat random figure on the right with a little dragon on her shoulder.... Nope, I've no idea why either. Anyway, she's the nomad figure from the "dire foes" boxed sets where you get a civvie and two figures from different factions for £20ish. Bit steep if I just wanted one figure, so I snapped her up when I saw a new seller I found (ABZ games - great service and good prices too) split boxes out and were selling them individually.

All that crazy productivity leaves me with lots of nomads done and only another 4 to paint to get all the ones that I have finished. Phew.

Infinity nomads - painted!

And rather badly photographed too.....

In keeping with my Yu Jing, these had armour done with successive washes instead of the standard base colour-wash-highlight that is my norm. I really like the sort of plastic armour feel it gives..... Although the red didn't have nearly the coverage of the yellow so needed 4 or 5 coats!

Still, a light nuln oil "black lining" and I'm rather pleased with it.  I kept to more neutral shades for the clothing and a smattering of metal as I see the far future as having the laminated armour look. Hey, it's my future so it can look like what I want it to ;)

Front facing

And a...ahem.... Rear shot.

I really like the nomad figures and Corvus belly have done cracking jobs on the sculpts, including the menacing Sin-Eater and the rather more prosaic militia chaps. I changed the pose of the last one (a reverend moira) as I didn't like the gun sticking straight out in front of her.

....Is the new black!

So.....starting the Iron Hands infantry now at work and I find that I am resistant to painting them black. Why?

Cos it's well boring!

I'm more inclined to use a metallic finish to make them a bit more 'Iron-ey'. With this in mind I have decided to use a black base coat with a strong drybrushing of a dark metallic colour. I plumped for Gunmetal Blue and have finished this stage for the first thirty marines.

After this I am intending to paint the guns and bionics in a lighter gunmetal colour and then use a black wash to dull down the figure. After that I'll pick out any flesh and other details prior to varnishing. Should be a fairly straight forward job getting these done.

TTFN.

Getting back in the groove!!

With the arrival of Life long Burden Joyous bundle #2 I've obviously not had the time to commit to the hobby.

Massive shame because I've got some neato stuff to do!

Anyhoo. Time to get back in to the saddle and force some progress. I thought I'd start with something fun to re-invigorate myself. Hence the Knight Titan. Lovely kit to put together and given the size and detail I would say it is worth the money.

A quick spray black undercoat in the carpark at work and onto my desk for painting and the usual odd looks from my colleagues. Working in a relaxed environment does have its advantages!! Lunchtime painting is really therapeutic.

He'll take me a while chipping away doing 40 minutes a day but it is progress! I'm intending him to be attached to my Iron Hands to bolster them up to 1500-2000pts quickly but I'm sure he be seconded out to the Howling Griffons from time to time.

Under my desk are the first thirty Iron Hands and I'm hoping that my paint scheme will be simple and effective as I don't want to take ages on them but I want to do more than just spray them black. I might start them soon as well and alternate between the two projects depending on my mood.

TTFN!

More mechanicum

So a bit of painting done this weekend. 3 x thallax, Mage domus and an old mechanicum figure from 1992.  Pictured in front of the limited edition box set 😄😄😄

Test figure for DG and my first mechanicum

So, a lucky chaos space marine went retro as my test figure for the basic DG scheme.  What is missing from this is some streaking and more wear and tear on the armour, but that can be added to the proper figures.

Then with a spare hour I decided to paint a castellax, easy paint job.  Once I get weathering the vehicles there wil be dust on the legs of this, but no need yet.